The Straw Hat Ghoul
Rosine Archipelago Saga
Thunder Island arc
Chapter One: New Sea
In the sea of East Blue resides a city known as Loguetown. This city is where most pirates go before they set off for the Grand Line; they stock up on supplies, have a drink, and usually go to see where the infamous Gol D. Roger was executed. Naturally, the Straw Hat pirates are headed there as well.
The wind is calm, the air is warm, and the sky's as clear as can be; nothing seems particularly "off," yet all marines stationed in the city are still on their toes. Their "anything can happen" mindset has been underestimated by countless pirates aching to explore the Grand Line. They'll be travelling for weeks from their home, and just before they enter their dream sea suddenly a Vice Admiral has them in cuffs.
A plethora of shops span the streets of the city, and merchants stand on every corner trying to sell their items; though discouraged by the World Government, plenty of stores sell gear intended for pirates passing through. A portion of pirates attempt to raid the city and fail miserably, but those pirate shops are paid off when those that
don't mindlessly attack arrive. The Straw Hats, with the occasional exception of Monkey D. Luffy, are the latter type.
In one of the more crowded sections of the town, a purple hole-like object appears in the air. Suddenly, multiple people come falling out of it, and crash onto the concrete ground. One of these people is Ken Kaneki, AKA Eyepatch, and another is Touka Kirishima, AKA Rabbit. They immediately rise to their feet and scan their surroundings; they see nothing but many random people giving them looks of fright and bewilderment.
What did I do? thinks Kaneki.
It felt… It felt as if I caused all of this…Kaneki has been falling in a void for a little over an hour by himself, and finally arrived in the
One Piece universe with his friends just now. It takes him several moments to comprehend the situation. His hair is bleach-white, there's blood covering multiple parts of his body, and there's a noticeable tear in his trademark eyepatch. Touka appears roughed-up as well, as does everyone else in the group.
A few minutes later, Vice Admiral Smoker arrives on the scene to investigate all of the commotion. His entire body can turn into smoke at his whim; he's one of the more powerful Devil's Fruit users, and catches pirates before they enter the Grand Line almost every other day. At least one cigar is in his mouth at all times; he has white hair, a buff body, and sports a white Marine coat. His sudden appearance initially does not phase the people from the
Tokyo Ghoul universe, but once he clutches the ghoul Nishiki with his powers, all else make a break for it, including Kaneki.
The words "what did I do" echo through Kaneki's mind as he sprints through the Loguetown streets, and the words "is this a dream" echo through Touka's. The two separate; Touka heads north, towards the Marine base, and Kaneki heads southwards, to the harbor. None of them think about each other. None of them know where they are. None of them realize that mindlessly running away from each other can ultimately be their undoings.
The little ghoul girl, Hinami, eventually finds Touka, and they hide in an alley; Nishiki struggles against Smoker but manages to stand his ground with his kagune; and the other miscellaneous ghouls and ghoul hunters are frantically running about. Some destroy their surroundings in fear and confusion, while others hide in secluded areas. Kaneki does neither of those things - part of him thinks this is a dream and he's still being tortured, but another thinks he opened some kind of portal to another world, which is precisely what happened.
How he did it he knows not, and quite frankly he cares not.
Loguetown erupts into chaos. The ghoul hunters are chasing after the ghouls and demolishing everything in their way. The marines are desperately trying to fix the situation, but nothing good comes their way. Nishiki escapes from Smoker after figuring out he's entirely different from normal humans, and Touka and Hinami escape the commotion. For once, it's
before the Straw Hats arrive that chaos ensues.
Then, the Straw Hats arrive. Luffy jumps out of the boat to see what's going down and the rest of the crew dart after him in attempt to calm him down; a couple of the marines notice he's Straw Hat Luffy with a 30 million beli bounty, and they inform Smoker. Smoker does not take significant action after he confronts Luffy once; he instead orders his troops to pull back and let the situation handle itself - let the fighting end, per se.
"Luffy!" Nami yells out. "Luffy, stop!"
"But
LOOK!" he responds. A ghoul hunter using his kagune-like Quinque fiercely tries to capture one of the ghouls let out into the
One Piece world, and, from Luffy's point of view, that's
awesome. To him, it looks like there's octopus tentacles coming out of a suitcase a guy's holding, and he's fighting a guy with octopus tentacles growing out of his back.
"Luffy!" Nami cries out. "Just come on! We're not staying here!"
Luffy turns around. "B-b-but… This is where Gold Roger was executed! I've
gotta see it!"
"I DON'T CARE! You promised me you wouldn't get into a fight here, and it looks like that's impossible right now..."
Luffy sighs.
"Alright, let's go. But the
moment we've made a lap around the Grand Line, we're comin' to this damn city!"
Kaneki has already boarded the Straw Hat Pirates' ship, the Going Merry, and is trying to figure out how to sail away. But once the Straw Hats reach their ship, Kaneki is forced to hide inside one of the Merry's rooms. He sits behind a stack of crates in the darkness, thoughts of everything that's happening rushing through his mind… He hears people on deck, shouting about, and feels the ship start moving.
Then, the image of Touka appears in his mind. He realizes he's left her behind in that chaotic city with all of those ghoul hunters…
"…What do you mean, 'monsters?'" a voice confusingly shouts from the Den Den Mushi. A bewildered marine, trying to describe just what's happening in Loguetown, was just ordered by Smoker to contact a World Government official.
"I don't know if it's a Devil's Fruit, but… A ton of people showed up and started fighting each other with… with these octopus tentacle things, and all of these other bizarre powers!" the marine shouts.
"Smoker's stationed in Loguetown, correct?"
"C-correct."
"Then why the hell isn't he taking care of this?"
"I-I don't know! He just told us all to pull back and let them 'fight it out!'"
"Then let them 'fight it out,' as he said. If these monsters actually become problems
then that's when you call me."
"Y-yes sir!" the marine shouts in response.
The Going Merry, with Kaneki as a stowaway, heads for the Reverse Mountain which leads into the Grand Line, and the rest of the ghouls and ghoul hunters have a ceasefire to have time to figure out where they are. Meanwhile, Smoker releases the marines back into the city to bring order back. Everything returns to normal in a few hours. The ghoul hunters regroup in a section of town, and Nishiki finds Touka and Hinami in a secluded alleyway, away from trouble.
"This is bull*censored*!" shouts Nishiki. "What- where are we?"
Touka slaps him. "Don't say that in front of Hinami. I don't know where we are, either."
"Ow!" Nishiki blurts out, then sighs. "Wherever we are… It's giving me bad vibes. Did you see the guy that I fought?"
"The smoke-guy? Yeah. I did."
"I've… I've never seen anything like it. His body, like… was made out of smoke. My kagune was practically useless. That bastard..."
"Alright, let's not ponder over that. What are we going to do until we know exactly where we are and what the
hell got us here?"
"This seems to be an island, so… Let's get a ship and sail out of here for a bit. Maybe find some kind of map."
"A -" Touka stutters. "A ship? You mean, like-"
"Yes, a wooden, old-type ship. You seen the harbor? Tons of them out there."
"What the hell… O-okay. Let's get out of here."
Hinami speaks up. "What about Kaneki?"
Touka's eyes widen. She's been so caught up in everything that's happened she'd forgotten about…
him."What? Have you - have you
seen him?"
"Yes," Hinami replies. "He ran away when the smoke-guy attacked."
"That idiot… Where could he have gone?" Touka contemplates. "Maybe… is he still in the city?"
"Hinami," Nishiki says. "What direction was Kaneki running?"
"He ran directly away from the smoke-guy."
"The harbor… That's where the harbor is. Hurry! Let's go!" he shouts, and the three set off.
. . ."TO THE GRAND LINE!" Luffy shouts. The Straw Hats are currently riding up the Reverse Mountain, and Kaneki's freaking out. The ship zooms up the mountain on what feels like an almost mythical current. The water is flowing
up the mountain instead of down, and since Kaneki can see all of this through a window in the Going Merry, he truly thinks he's lost his mind. Luffy is the only one excited; the rest of the crew, as well as Kaneki, are scared for their lives.
There's the swordsman, Zoro, who's leaning against the mast, and is usually indifferent towards situations like this, but right now, he's a bit frightened. He has green hair, uses a three-sword fighting style, and wants to be the best swordsman in the entire
One Piece world.
After that is Nami. She's the ship's navigator, so naturally she's trying to control the situation, but Nami is the one screaming the loudest. Her goal in life is the make a map of the world - the
One Piece world, that is. If she ever were to find out the existence of
other worlds, she'd be the first one to explore it.
Following those two is Usopp; he's a… well,
peculiar fellow. He's the ship's marksman, and uses a slingshot as his weapon - though he's one of the weakest, he's also one of the most resourceful, and usually has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. He also likes to trick people into thinking he's very powerful. He wears goggles and has fluffy-ish black hair, and his goal in life is to simply become a brave warrior of the sea.
Then, there's Sanji. He's the ship's cook. His defining trait is that he's infatuated with nearly every woman on the planet, and that's also his greatest weakness. He'll never hurt a lady. His kicks are very strong and can easily knock out an ordinary person; he has blond hair, is tall, and usually wears a black suit. His wish is to find a mythical sea called "All Blue," where many fish from all five of the world's seas (North, West, East, and South Blue, as well as the Grand Line) live.
Monkey D. Luffy is their captain, for better or worse. He wears his trademark Straw Hat given to him by his hero, and has the power of the Gomu Gomu fruit - his body is made of rubber, allowing him to stretch endlessly. His dream is to become the Pirate King, and entering the Grand Line, just as he is right now, is the first step to becoming just that.
Of course, there's
much more to it than that.
"LUFFY!" Usopp shouts. "HOW CAN YOU BE SO HAPPY AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!"
Luffy laughs. "We're going to the Grand Line! How can I
not be happy?"
"You're a madman, Luffy," he chuckles in response. "This can't be good for the Merry, though…"
"Merry'll be fine," Luffy reassures him.
As the Going Merry zooms up the Reverse Mountain and the Red Line, which acts as the wall that separates the east portion of the
One Piece world from the west, water crashes onto the deck and almost causes Sanji to fly off of the ship. Once they reach the top of the mountain, the Merry goes flying upwards, and for a few seconds the ship is in midair. It crashes back onto the current rushing down the side of the mountain, and they further push towards the Grand Line.
"This is awesome!" Luffy shouts. "Ever since I was a kid… This… I've been waiting for this!"
Zoro smiles. "We've got a long way to go, captain. But, I guess, we made it this far, so we're not doing half bad..."
Sanji chimes in by remarking, "This is pretty cool, I've got to admit…" He lights his cigar just after water splashes onto his face.
Who are these people? Kaneki internally questions. He's helplessly quivering in the back of the ship, pondering over whether or not he's in reality. "
Pirate King…" "Grand Line…" Just where did I end up?He undos his ghoul mask and puts on his regular, white eyepatch. The mask is thrown to the side; the tear in the eye portion of his mask is still there. He thinks of home; he hasn't seem his home in quite awhile, as before he entered the
One Piece universe he was being held captive by a certain enemy. His fellow ghoul friends were fighting to rescue him before the portal opened.
This is a bizarre place… At least… At least ghouls aren't the outliers. In a place like this… strange is probably the norm. Now that I think about it, that smoke-guy Nishiki fought wasn't even phased by his ghoul powers, he just, well… fought him. Like he sees that kind of stuff all of the time. Heh, that's not too bad.Oh, what am I saying? I've royally *censored*ed up. Somehow, I made a connection to whatever this place is and all of my friends I wanted to protect got dragged along with me. Even Hinami… Why she was even close to the portal I have no clue, but at the very least I hope Touka is looking after her.I guess I'll just embrace the crazy, like I did when I first got my ghoul powers.Those three words, "embrace the crazy," are what keeps Kaneki's sanity intact during the journey that lies ahead of him.
"...I checked that side of the harbor, no sign of him."
Touka sighs. "What're we going to do then, Nishiki?" She sits on the edge of the dock, dangling her legs above the water. Contrasting to how it was earlier, dark clouds lie above the small group; setting sail is probably not a good idea for them at that moment.
"Well, do you think he just stole a ship or something?" he questions. "Well, no, actually, he's probably too stupid to figure out how to maneuver one of these ships."
"You're right," Touka replies. "And anyway, he's probably curled up in a ball somewhere in the city. What are we even doing out here?"
Nishiki laughs. "I don't really know…"
Touka looks to the ground for a moment.
"Well… Let's get going, I guess. He's probably panicking right now, it's best if he doesn't cause any trouble."
Ah, but what Touka knows not is that he is already far off from Loguetown and entering a sea filled with trouble. Speaking of…
"Who are
you?"
Kaneki slowly backs into the back of the room. It is none other than Sanji, standing at the doorway, asking who he is. Kaneki tries to reply, only to stumble over his words and shake uncontrollably.
"I'm gonna ask one more time. Who are you? How did you get on this ship?" Sanji demands. His face grows more impatient, and Kaneki's grows more frightened.
If this guy was a regular human, I could beat him right now… But, he might have some strange power like that smoke-guy. I guess I won't cause trouble."I-uh… I didn't… I had nowhere else to go."
"Huh?"
"It's a… long story, see, I'm…"
Kaneki hangs his head down and sighs.
"I have no idea where I am."
Kaneki realizes the stillness of the boat he's in; the Going Merry is now off of the Reverse Mountain current and in the Grand Line. It's docked at a place known as Twin Cape, and the rest of the crew are out talking with a certain man the resides at the cape. Sanji was the one put in charge of guarding the ship.
"So, you… what, decided to hitch a ride on our ship? Do you know where we're going?" Sanji questions. He walks closer to Kaneki and squats down in front of him.
"Sort-of, and no… See, don't hate me for this, but I tried…" Kaneki sighs. "I tried to steal your ship but you guys got back before I figured out how to do so. Listen… I don't want to cause trouble. I don't know where I am, I don't know where my friends are, and right now… I just don't know anything."
Kaneki stands up.
"Sorry to cause you trouble."
Just before Kaneki begins walking for the doorway, Luffy appears. He opens the door and scares the living hell out of Kaneki.
"Huh? Who's this?" Luffy asks.
"Stowaway. Must've gotten on our ship back in Loguetown. I think he was just leaving, though."
Luffy walks closer to him, intrigued. He scratches his chin in curiousity.
"A stowaway? Why?"
Kaneki stutters, "I just… wanted a ride, I don't want to cause trouble."
"Actually, he was intending to steal our ship before we got back," Sanji says.
Luffy frowns. Kaneki flinches, expecting the boy in front of him to retaliate; instead, Luffy asks, "That wouldn't have been good. The Going Merry's our nakama! We can't have some stranger taking it from us."
Luffy regains his usual cheerful personality and struts closer to a bewildered Kaneki.
"Say, what's your name?" Luffy asks him.
"K-ken Kaneki."
"Ken Kaneki, where ya from?"
"...Tokyo?"
"Cool! Never heard of it. Anyway, you wanna join us on our trip and become our nakama?"
Sanij shouts, "Oi, Luffy! What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just go inviting random people! It's like you said, he's a stranger, and he tried to steal our ship!"
Kaneki stares at Luffy with a blank face. What just happened doesn't register with him for a few moments, and even after that he's still confused. He tried to steal their ship and was hiding in one of the ship's rooms, now he's being invited to join their crew? To Kaneki, this must
really be a weird world.
"Nah, Sanji. I have a good feeling about this one. And look! He's got cool white hair, but he's young! Not like Smokey. I like his mask, too."
White hair... What is he talking about?Luffy continues. "Ken! What are you good at?"
"What?" Kaneki confusingly replies.
"Simple. What are you good at?"
"He probably means how can you help out on this ship," Sanji remarks.
Kaneki thinks. "Uhh…"
Ships… Old-time… No, wait… Guard man. No, that's stupid. Uh… I can clean?"Janitor?"
"Alright! It's settled! Ken Kaneki is our janito-what's a janitor?"
"Cleans stuff."
"...you keep our ship clean?"
"He could be the busboy. Does the oddjobs," Sanji suggests. "Maybe wash the dishes 'n stuff."
What the hell…?"Doesn't Usopp already do that?" Luffy questions.
"Technically, yeah, but he's also the marksman. This way, he'll keep watch with the cannons longer," Sanji explains.
"Alright, it's settled! Kaneki's our busboy!" Luffy shouts. "Let's go tell the crew!"
And the three head out to the main deck of the Going Merry where Nami is just making her way back onto the ship.
"LUFFY!" Nami shouts. "What-how-who is this?!"
Nami jumps from the land of the Twin Cape to the Going Merry and lands on the wooden floor. Kaneki steps back in anticipation of trouble but instead the girl starts yelling at Luffy. He notices her appearance: medium-length orange hair, a white shirt with a few blue stripes, and some kind of compass watch.
"NAMI-SWAN!" Sanji happily shouts. "Did you miss me?"
Nami ignores him. "Nevermind, there's something more important. You see this?"
Nami holds up her "compass watch," as Kaneki called it. Luffy nods as he studies it.
"This is a log pose. We need this to travel the Grand Line, alright? We can't use regular compasses."
Luffy nods again, and walks off to the land of the Twin Cape. There's a baby whale that lives there, named Laboon, and also an old man.
"Sanji."
"Yes, Nami-san?" he quickly replies, eager to talk to her.
"Who is this?" Nami asks. She's referring to Kaneki.
"Oh. This is Kaneki, our new… busboy."
"...what? Where did he come from?"
"HE CAME FROM LOGUETOWN!" Luffy shouts from the other side of the ship.
"Isn't Usopp our busboy?"
"I'M NOT A BUSBOY!" shouts Usopp as he jumps back onto the ship with an apple in his hand. "I'm the marksman!"
Another one, Kaneki thinks.
"Wait-who's this?" Usopp questions. Zoro appears behind him, and he seems to be ready for trouble. Kaneki flinches at the sight of Zoro clutching one of his swords.
"He's Kaneki from Loguetown, and apparently he's our busboy," Sanji informs. "I found him curled up in our main room."
"Wait just a second," Zoro says. "So we're going to let some stranger be apart of our crew? God dammit."
"Guys, I didn't even mean to get on thi-"
"Shut it." Zoro hops down and glares at Kaneki. "Don't try anything, okay, busboy?"
Zoro knows that once Luffy's decided on a new crew member there's nothing he can do to stop it. He thinks,
This guy could be bad news, but then again, Luffy's never chosen wrongly about new nakama. All of the Straw Hats eventually hop back on deck and talk.
"So, the old guy gave us the compass watch, right?" Luffy asks.
"It's not a compass watch, it's a log pose. And yes. Also, he gave us an eternal pose."
"The hell's an eternal pose?"
"I'll get to that - anyway, how a log pose works is that it will point in the direction of the next Grand Line island, and once we reach that island we have to let it 'set,' giving it time to adjust its path to point to the next island. Luffy, did you get all that?"
"What?" Luffy asks. "Sorry, I was thinking about that whale back at the cape."
Nami slaps him. "Aren't you the captain?"
"Yes!"
"Then pay attention!"
"Okay!"
Nami explains it again and Luffy dozes off again. She gives up trying to tell him and instead makes sure the rest of the crew knows what's going on. She explains the eternal pose, which forever points in the direction of a certain island - this one being "Thunder Island."
From this point forward, the Straw Hats have another member. As they begin to set sail for Thunder Island, one of the many first Grand Line islands, Kaneki sits on the side of the ship and lets his legs dangle off. He looks forward at the sea all around him, as well as Twin Cape gradually disappearing off to the right. Kaneki knows Touka and his other friends are out there somewhere, but begins to question whether or not he'll see them again; he thinks,
these seem like alright people, maybe they'll let me have time to look for them. For now, I guess I'll be their… "busboy."In this new… world, with a new sea, and new people with new powers… It's much different here. I guess I'll go along with it for now. The portal to my world is closed, without a doubt, and even if it's somehow still open there's probably a ton of people guarding it.In the sea of East Blue is Touka, Nishiki, and Hinami. They've given up on looking for Kaneki and are convinced he's on some ship sailing out in an unknown direction. Touka keeps questioning people if they've seen him, but she does not know he now has white hair, so her description of him is false. After hearing that Loguetown is usually the city people stop by before entering the Grand Line, she decides to find a ship and head for this "Grand Line." The trio, like Kaneki, boards a random ship, and, before they can figure out how to maneuver the ship, the ship's crew is back.
Unlike Kaneki, they boarded a marine ship; that marine ship is headed straight for the Grand Line. And also unlike Kaneki, the crew on that ship isn't looking for new members, nor are they as friendly to random stowaways.
In this new sea known as the Grand Line, the Straw Hat Pirates will rise to infamy, and Kaneki will be there right alongside them. Gradually, ghouls will become known throughout the world of
One Piece and the
Tokyo Ghoul world will begin to affect
One Piece more and more each day. Touka will search for Kaneki as her name spreads across the world, and Kaneki will think of her every day as well. Luffy will make many, many enemies but also make just as many allies. They'll find new crew members, "nakama" as they call it.
Eventually, the name "Straw Hat Ghoul" will resonate throughout the world, and that name will go down in history alongside Straw Hat Luffy.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. Their adventure is just beginning.
And it all starts with Thunder Island.